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My “little” girl is not so little anymore. She’s a college-level athlete who physically towers over many of her peers and who is smart as a whip (yes, proud papa, guilty as charged). She’s grown into a self-sufficient young woman in college, but is way beyond my protective reach at a school more than 500 miles away. And I all too well remember the talks with her when she was truly little about “stranger danger”: don’t talk to strangers, don’t accept gifts from strangers, and for goodness’ sake just be careful.
Stranger danger is not a fear specific to our little ones. Recent research by a team of university investigators from Penn State, Brown, and Virginia Commonwealth found that people with greater social fear, in this case indicated by a fear of unfamiliar social situations, among other social contexts, show more negative attitudes toward out-groups. In non-social scientific talk, out-groups mean strangers, and strangers mean immigrants. In other words, these researchers found that individuals who “are scared of novelty, uncertainty, people they don’t know, and things they don’t understand” are more likely to express anti-immigration and pro-segregation opinions.
What about the biology?
The fact that people who are fearful in social situations are also wary of people unknown to them is not a great shock. Of course we’re at greater risk, social and otherwise, with people from whom we don’t know what to expect, and people who are particularly fearful of social unknowns are going to be even more fearful.
These researchers though also found social fear is more than just a temporary state that can be evoked by a difficult but fleeting situation. Social fear is also an ongoing, long-term trait that varies between people. Some of our friends and neighbors walk around all or most of the time with much higher levels of social fear than others. It is no surprise then that this research as well as other psychological and psychiatric studies provides important evidence that social fear is not only learned but also genetically inherited. As a matter of fact, studies show that up to half of the individual differences in fear disposition are attributable to genetics.
Ah, the politics of it all.
Any self-respecting political caveman couldn’t tell this story without closing the loop with the political angle. The story starts with the recognition that research has shown political conservatives are more fearful than political liberals of things like crime, terrorism, and death, and it continues with a lot of public opinion polling showing a pretty strong tendency for conservatives to express greater concern over immigration than liberals.
The question is whether people are conservative first, which makes them fearful, or whether fearful people are more likely to be conservative (or at least express more conservative policy positions). These researchers conclude the latter: “We suggest that people are not expected to be more fearful because they are conservative; rather, individuals who are fearful tend to espouse less supportive policies toward out-groups” (i.e., they tend to express more conservative attitudes).
I think this is an important finding. In the current state of government affairs, politicos seem to jump quite quickly to the conclusion that their opponents are either evil or stupid instead of at least trying to engage the other side’s positions and arguments. If political opponents understand their rivals are not just trying to be difficult or corrupt but may be partially motivated by biological forces that weigh on their policy positions, the evening news and Sunday morning talking head shows may become less cringe-worthy to watch (I made this point in another post almost a year ago, but I think it’s really important).
As I write this…
It’s a Saturday night as I finish up this post. My daughter is hours and hours away at some college event with her friends. I hope she feels safe making new friends and talking with people she doesn’t know…just don’t talk for too long…especially to the young men.
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For more information see:
Hatemi, McDermott, Eaves, Kendler, & Neale. “Fear as a Disposition and an Emotional State: A Genetic and Environmental Approach to Out-Group Political Preferences.” American Journal of Political Science, 2013.
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